- UK: Reeves plans to give regional regimes a share of national tax revenues
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Rachel Reeves has announced that the Treasury will draw up plans to give regional leaders a share of national tax revenues as part of a radical plan to rebalance the economy of England. Setting out her intention of creating ‘investment-led growth,’ the chancellor promised ‘a genuine break with the past’ that would shift spending power away from Westminster. … Reeves set out plans to reform regulation to ‘shift the balance of power towards workers, consumers, bill-payers and renters.’ Her lecture was titled The Active and Strategic State, and restated the approach she calls ‘securonomics.'” (03/17/26)
- Top Gabbard aide resigns over Iran war
Source: The Hill
“A top aide to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has resigned in protest of the Trump administration’s war in Iran. Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, posted on social media platform X that he was resigning effective Tuesday. He appears to be the first major Trump administration official to resign over the war. ‘I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,’ Kent wrote. Kent shared a letter addressed to President Trump stating that while he supports ‘the values and the foreign policies that you campaigned on in 2016, 2020’ and 2024, he disagreed with the president’s decision to launch the Iran operation.” (03/17/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5787478-trump-aide-joe-kent-resigns-iran-war
- White House Seeks Fertilizer from Venezuela, Morocco to make up shortages caused by Trump’s Iran fiasco
Source: US News & World Report
“The Trump administration is seeking other sources of fertilizer amid the ongoing Iran war’s shipping constraints, including from Venezuela and possibly Morocco, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said on Tuesday. … Fertilizer supplies have shrunk as the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran cut off critical nitrogen fertilizer supplies from the Gulf to the world’s farmers, sending prices spiking by more than one-third in recent weeks.” (03/17/26)
- Amazon rolls out 1-hour, 3-hour delivery as ultrafast shipping trend grows in the US
Source: CNBC
“Amazon said Tuesday it’s starting one-hour and three-hour deliveries in parts of the U.S., as the company continues to look for ways to satisfy impatient consumers. The company said three-hour delivery is available in about 2,000 cities and towns in the U.S., while one-hour delivery is available in hundreds of those areas. … More than 90,000 products are eligible for delivery in three hours or less, including pantry items, cleaning supplies, over-the-counter medications, clothing and toys. Amazon said it expects to bring the service, which started via small-scale tests late last year, to more areas of the country in the coming months.” (03/17/26)
- Judge blocks RFK Jr’s changes to US childhood vaccine schedule
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A federal judge on Monday blocked the US government from making sweeping changes to childhood immunisations, in a blow to Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s agenda. Since taking office a year ago, Kennedy has sought to change and loosen vaccine regulations, including slashing the number of recommended shots for children from 17 to 11. The American Academy of Pediatrics and other large medical groups had sued, saying Kennedy’s changes violated federal law. Judge Brian Murphy also suspended Kennedy’s appointments to an advisory vaccine panel, many of whom were vaccine-sceptics. Kennedy was a longtime antivaccine activist before joining President Donald Trump’s administration. The ruling means a scheduled Wednesday meeting for the vaccine panel, called the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) will be postponed, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).” [editor’s note: Ince again the Pharma minions gather to block sanity – SAT] (03/17/26)
- Israeli regime claims to have assassinated top Iranian military figures
Source: Axios
“Israel assassinated two top Iranian officials in separate strikes Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said: national security chief Ali Larijani and Basij paramilitary commander Gholamreza Soleimani. Larijani was the de facto leader of Iran for the first ten days of the war after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in Israel’s opening strike and before his son Mojtaba was chosen as successor, Israeli officials say. An Israeli official said Soleimani was in charge of crushing protests and that his killing is aimed at enabling a popular uprising.” (03/17/26)
- IL: Lobby for foreign power makes $22 million election meddling investment
Source: Politico
“The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is making a nearly $22 million bet in Illinois that its money, if not its policy views, can still hold sway in Democratic politics. In three of the four Illinois House races it’s targeting, AIPAC appears to be using shell PACs to largely conceal where that money is coming from rather than spend from its main super PAC vehicle, United Democracy Project. Like in other recent contests, their ads focus on anything but Israel. … Tuesday’s primary will be the first test of AIPAC’s political muscle in the 2026 primary season after amassing nearly $100 million in its warchest, even as polls show more and more Democrats have negative views of Israel — and of the group itself.” (03/17/26)
- UT: Mother who wrote book about grief found guilty of poisoning husband
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“A mother who published a children’s book about grief after the sudden death of her husband has been found guilty of his murder. A jury found that Kouri Richins, from Utah, killed her husband in March 2022 by poisoning him with a fentanyl-laced drink. The jury deliberated on the case for about three hours before reaching its verdict on Monday. During the trial, the court heard how Richins, 35, had racked up millions of dollars in debt, taken out life insurance policies on her husband and was having an extramarital affair. Prosecutors called more than 40 witnesses, including the woman who said she sold the drugs used to kill Eric Richins.” (03/17/26)
- Australia: Central bank hikes rates to a near 1-year high as Iran war raises inflation risks
Source: CNBC
“Australia’s central bank on Tuesday raised benchmark policy rates for a second straight time, pushing them to their highest since April 2025 at 4.1%, amid sticky inflation. The 25 basis points hike was in line with expectations from analysts polled by Reuters, and comes as Australia’s inflation stays above the central bank’s upper limit of 3%, with the war in the Middle East risking a further rise in prices. … Inflation in the country was at 3.6% for the quarter ended December. On monthly basis, inflation was at 3.8% in January, marginally surpassing expectations of 3.7%.” (03/17/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/17/australia-central-bank-interest-rates-rise.html
- US appeals court fines lawyers $30,000 in latest AI-related sanction
Source: Reuters
“An appeal containing fake case citations that misrepresent the law can be dismissed as frivolous, a U.S. federal appeals court panel said in a decision sanctioning two attorneys who submitted filings that bore hallmarks of artificial intelligence ‘hallucinations.’ The Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in its order on Friday that attorneys Van Irion and Russ Egli ‘sullied the reputation of our bar, which now must litigate under the cloud of their conduct.’ The court said it found more than two dozen fake citations and misrepresentations of fact in the appeal, which involved an incident at a fireworks show hosted by the city of Athens, Tennessee. … The two attorneys must reimburse Athens for its legal work on the appeal, and also must individually pay $15,000 each to the appeals court as a punitive sanction, according to the order.” (03/16/26)
- MI: Coast Guard rescues snowmobile operator stranded on ice
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“The US Coast Guard and local first responders worked together to rescue a snowmobile operator who became stranded on ice near Mackinac Island, Michigan. An aerial rescue was first attempted but blizzard conditions prevented local or Coast Guard helicopter teams from taking flight. Timelapse video shows the Coast Guard instead cautiously manoeuvring a vessel to the edge of the ice and safely deploying a rescue team. The snowmobiler was experiencing mild hypothermia at the time of the rescue, but was reported to be in stable condition. Officials said the operator had previously been advised by the fire department not to go out due to conditions described as ‘worse than a whiteout.'” (03/17/26)
- Nigeria: At least 23 dead, more than 100 wounded in suspected suicide bombings
Source: CBS News
“At least 23 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in suspected suicide bombings Monday night that targeted Maiduguri city in northeastern Nigeria, police said Tuesday. It was one of the deadliest attacks in the conflict-battered city in recent history. Residents and emergency services earlier told The Associated Press that three explosions were reported in crowded places in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, including in a major market and at the entrance of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.” (03/17/26)
- Racial Genetics Is Trump’s Defining Worldview
Source: TomDispatch
by Clarence Lusane“Jeffrey Epstein was not only a rapist and a child predator, but also — wait for it — a White supremacist. While some speculate that the Epstein issue is just a distraction from President Trump’s virulent and endless racism, others feel that the video the president posted at the beginning of Black History Month of Barack and Michelle Obama as apes was meant to divert attention from the growing Epstein fallout. Well, as it turns out, the two crises are not as far apart as you might imagine. Bombshell articles in The Atlantic, Mother Jones, and at MS Now pulled the covers off Jeffrey Epstein’s noxious racism.” [editor’s note: I will leave it to the reader to decipher this mess of lies and context drops – SAT] [additional editor’s note: Probably a good idea, SAT … I suspect they’ll do a better job than your note indicates you did – TLK] (03/17/26)
https://tomdispatch.com/donald-trumps-racism-mirrors-jeffrey-epsteins/
- Warriors’ Casino: The People Making A Killing Gambling On War
Source: Racket News
by Ryan Lovelace“Bettors traded more than $529 million in forecasts of when the U.S. would next strike Iran in a market opened last year on Polymarket, the self-described world’s largest prediction market. Bets on Polymarket are made with cryptocurrency, and each trade is countered by another user, so not exactly versus ‘the house.’ By contrast, $133.8 million was bet on last month’s Super Bowl across Nevada’s 186 sportsbooks, representing a 10-year low, according to data from the Nevada Gaming Control Board. … But betting big on war is not exactly a new phenomenon and the outcomes are far from guaranteed, as America’s enemies found out the hard way 250 years ago. Over drinks at Brooke’s in London on Christmas Day, 1776, legend has it British Gen. John Burgoyne bet a colleague 50 guineas he would return by the following Christmas having squashed the American patriots’ rebellion.” (03/17/26)
- The Israel Lobby’s Responsibility for the Iran War
Source: Foreign Policy
by Stephen M Walt“This war did not come out of nowhere. To be sure, the United States and Iran have been at odds for decades, and neither Israel nor the lobby is solely responsible for the suspicion with which each country views the other. Nonetheless, lobby groups such as AIPAC, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the Zionist Organization of America, and United Against Nuclear Iran have worked to demonize Iran over the years, prevent U.S. companies from doing business there, and derail prior attempts by former Iranian presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammed Khatami to improve relations. … by making it almost impossible for either Democratic or Republican presidents to put meaningful pressure on Israel, the lobby has enabled Netanyahu to engage in ‘reckless driving’ all over the region, whether in Israel’s sustained efforts to oppress its Palestinian subjects or in its repeated attacks on Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iran, and even Qatar.” (03/17/26)
- This Is What It Looks Like When You Give Zionists Everything They Want
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“This is Zionism put into practice. The wars. The massacres. The bombed-out schools and hospitals. The millions of displaced individuals. The invasion of Lebanon. The explosions carpeting Tehran. The hollowed-out moonscape of Gaza. The horrific pogroms in the West Bank. The child amputees. The smell of rotting corpses. The assassinated doctors and journalists. The blackened sky and the poisoned water. The nonstop deluge of brain-melting propaganda. The aggressive promotion of Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism. The erosion of free speech rights throughout the western world. The corrupt warmongering politicians. The legions of online hasbara trolls. The soaring fuel prices. Money which could pay for social services buying bombs for Israel instead. All the death, destruction, instability and suffering that’s being visited upon countless civilians throughout west Asia. This is Zionism.” (03/17/26)
- The Iran War’s Terrible Effects
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison“The Iran war is a regional war in a way that previous reckless U.S. interventions were not, and it is having global effects. The Iran war is already wider and more damaging to international peace and security in its first three weeks than the Iraq war was in its early years. If it is allowed to continue for several more months, the damage to regional security will be severe. The damage to the interests of many of our treaty allies will also be significant, and the entire global economy will suffer. This was an entirely avoidable disaster, and the U.S. and Israel are responsible for causing it.” (03/17/26)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/the-iran-wars-terrible-effects
- What If Iranians Don’t Want to Be “Free”?
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter“I’m not one of those people tapping their foot saying, ‘When is the war going to end? It’s been dragging on and is a disaster!’ No, those people are idiots actively hoping the United States is damaged because of who the President of the United States is. Nor do I think the Iranian regime didn’t deserve to be wiped out; those who used to be in charge (and alive) were evil and them no longer existing is a great thing for humanity. But what comes next isn’t up to us, it’s up to the people of Iran to act. And there is still an open question about what it is they want, so we have to consider the possibility that most of them simply don’t want to be ‘free.'” (03/17/26)
- Trump Risks It All on Regime Change Abroad
Source: The American Conservative
by Ted Galen Carpenter“It is supremely ironic that President Donald Trump, who in 2016 gained a reputation as a staunch opponent of regime-change wars, is 10 years later placing a huge political bet on achieving success with multiple U.S. crusades of that nature. He has already launched regime-change military campaigns against Venezuela and Iran. Some comments by Trump indicate that he is contemplating a campaign to oust the entrenched communist regime in Cuba. It’s a massive gamble for the president and the Republican Party. If Trump can carry off the strategy, and pro-U.S. successor governments replace repressive and hostile systems in all three countries, his historical legacy would be impressive in the eyes of many. … A failure to achieve such transformational outcomes at low cost in American blood and treasure, though, would likely prove politically disastrous for Trump and his supporters. The early indicators are not especially encouraging for the administration’s strategy.” (03/17/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trump-risks-it-all-on-regime-change-abroad/
- Trump Can’t Blockade Love: Why I’m Going to Cuba
Source: Common Dreams
by Leonardo Flores“I’m traveling to Cuba for the first time on March 21 to be in Havana with the Nuestra América Convoy, in which people from dozens of countries representing a variety of organizations will break the blockade, bringing much-needed supplies to the island. CODEPINK is bringing 6,300 pounds of medical equipment and medicine with help from Global Health Partners and others. These supplies will be given to clinics, hospitals, and maternity centers as Cuba deals with the latest horrifying crime against humanity perpetrated by the United States. The US is blockading oil, seizing and chasing away Cuba-bound tankers in the Caribbean. No oil whatsoever has entered the island since early December. Trump characterized Cuba as an ‘unusual and extraordinary threat,’ paving the way for more unilateral coercive measures (so-called sanctions).” (03/17/26)
- Paul Ehrlich Was Wrong About Everything
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson“At what point must we be frank about the fact that Paul Ehrlich, The Population Bomb author who died last week at the age of 93, was not simply wrong about almost everything he ever wrote or said or thought, but positively and culpably dishonest? If ever there were an intellectual grave that deserves pissing on posthaste, it is Paul Ehrlich’s. So let us commence. Ehrlich was an intellectual fraud, something he had in common with many of the celebrated pseudoscientists, quacks, and cranks who became intellectual heroes to our era’s progressives, from Sigmund Freud to Noam Chomsky, Rachel Carson, Margaret Sanger, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. until about five minutes ago. (Right-wingers don’t go around reading books by crackpots — they put them into the Cabinet.)” (03/17/26)
- Why We Have to Fight Back Against ICE Protesters’ Terror Convictions
Source: The Intercept
by Natasha LennardEven in conservative Texas, I didn’t think a jury would buy the government’s case that these defendants were ‘North Texas Antifa Cell operatives’ — an organization fabricated whole cloth by the Trump administration — who had orchestrated an elaborate ambush of the ICE facility. Last week, a jury found eight of the defendants guilty of terrorism charges for simply being present and wearing black at the protest. The government scored a resounding victory: A few of the protesters, none of whom had fired any weapons, were acquitted of attempted murder charges, but the Justice Department won on almost all the other charges. … If that can be sold to juries as the work of an organized terrorist cell, deserving of up to 15 years in prison, then Trump’s fantasy of rounding up and imprisoning leftists en masse becomes a reality.” (03/17/26)
https://theintercept.com/2026/03/17/ice-protester-terrorism-convictions-trump-prairieland/
- Ending the Trump-Netanyahu War in the Middle East
Source: Antiwar.com
by Jeffrey D Sachs & Sybil Fares“The Israel-US war on Iran is engulfing the entire Middle East and could escalate to global war. The economic consequences are already severe and could become catastrophic. The Strait of Hormuz carries approximately one-fifth of all oil traded globally, and 30 percent of the world’s LNG. A sustained closure of the Strait would trigger an energy shock without modern precedent. The conflict is likely to spiral out of control because the US and Israel are dead set on hegemony in the Arab world and West Asia – one that combines Israeli territorial expansion with American-backed regime control across the region. The ultimate goal is a Greater Israel that absorbs all historic Palestine, combined with compliant Arab and Islamic governments stripped of genuine sovereignty, including on choices as to how and where they export their oil and gas. This is delusional.” (03/17/26)
- How the Iran war might shape a new world order
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff“More than material weapons might sway the war in Iran. As both Washington and Tehran are finding out, allies that would come to your assistance probably prefer to first share your values and not just mutual interests. On Saturday, President Donald Trump put out a call to seven countries to send ships to defend the vital oil-shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz. The response has been largely halting – at best, hesitant. The international uncertainty over the legal premise for the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran is probably a hindrance to those nations in risking their military to protect petroleum flows. ‘This is not our war; we did not start it,’ said Boris Pistorius, Germany’s defense minister. For Iran, two of its most powerful partners, China and Russia, are largely playing a minor role in the conflict, focusing mainly on crisis management or diplomacy.” (03/16/26)
- Ÿnsect Repellent
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“You vill eat ze bugs! Sorry, Klaus. Not interested. … as if to prove that Schwab’s Great Reset of our diet will not be driven by cartoonish elitists, Ÿnsect — Europe’s largest insect farm — has officially gone bankrupt.” (03/17/26)
- The Reckoning We Owe Generation Covid
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Jennifer Sey“[N]early everyone was complicit. Politicians, media, educators — they all went along with the hysteria. Now, they want to sweep it under the rug, pretending it never happened. Everyone failed. But we cannot forget.” (03/17/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-reckoning-we-owe-generation-covid/
- “Axis of cope”: What happens when they learn all the wrong lessons?
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jake Werner“Now that things haven’t gone quite as planned, watch Washington hawks dial it up more, this time against China.” (03/17/26)
- States Substitute for Corrupt Feds on Antitrust
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen“On Monday, the monopolization trial against Live Nation picked up where it left off a week earlier, with Jay Marciano, CEO of AEG Entertainment, the nation’s second-largest live concert promoter, under direct questioning. But there was a different lawyer in the lead plaintiff’s chair: Jeffrey Kessler, a superstar private litigator who successfully prosecuted cases against NASCAR and the NCAA, was seated in place of David Dahlquist, the Justice Department’s lead trial attorney. The reason for the swap is that DOJ settled their claims against Live Nation on March 9, and pressured many of the 39 states (and the District of Columbia) in the case, particularly the Republican ones, to go along with them. But in the end, only seven states did so …. The other 32 … failed to come to agreement after forced settlement talks from the judge.” (03/17/26)
- Can Immigration Address America’s Fiscal Nightmare? It Depends
Source: The Daily Economy
by John Phelan“High-skilled workers tend to strengthen government budgets, while low-skilled immigration can add fiscal pressure. The composition of immigration matters as much as the number.” (03/17/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/can-immigration-address-americas-fiscal-nightmare-it-depends/
- Entrepreneurial capitalism — the greatest deal in all of history
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Tim Worstall“Facebook, the online social network, has more than 2 billion global users. Because those users do not pay for the service, its benefits are hard to measure. We report the results of a series of three non-hypothetical auction experiments where winners are paid to deactivate their Facebook accounts for up to one year. Though the populations sampled and the auction design differ across the experiments, we consistently find the average Facebook user would require more than $1000 to deactivate their account for one year. OK, so the value users gain from Facebook is $1k a year, there are 2 billion of them, that’s two thousand billion, or $2 trillion in value a year. Of which Zucks has 10%, that $200 billion. Pretty good deal for us, really. But that’s not right, not at all. For Zucks’ money is a one off capital sum, the consumer benefit is an annual one.” (03/17/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/entrepreneurial-capitalism-the-greatest-deal-in-all-of-history
- History, immigration and the blame game
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton“Today, we are bombarded with claims that the lands of the Fifty States (i.e., the United States) are ‘stolen lands.’ And demands that the only option is to give the ‘LandBack.’ (An organization based in South Dakota, demanding that the Black Hills be returned to the ‘Great Sioux Nation’ (a/k/a the Seven Council Fires, consisting of the Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota people.) … Obviously, as lovers of liberty, we understand that going around stealing people’s land is a heinous act …. But we detect just a few problems with the proposed solution of returning hundreds of millions of acres of land to the descendants (and presumably heirs) of millions of people who owned that land from 400 to 150 or so years ago. And forcing more millions of people who live on that land (and think they own it) to go someplace else – where back where they came from or somewhere else.” (03/16/26)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/03/16/history-immigration-and-the-blame-game/
- Chuck Schumer’s shutdown gambit gets riskier by the day
Source: New York Post
by Daniel McCarthy“Next time your flight’s delayed or canceled, or you’re stuck in an endless TSA line, thank a congressional Democrat. Senate Dems have decided to make a show of their support for lawless immigration by inflicting pain on American travelers. They’ve blocked funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Transportation Security Administration, even though their stunt doesn’t affect the budget of the agency Democrats really want to hurt, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. … It’s bad enough congressional Democrats are taking their anger at immigration enforcement out on American travelers. What’s yet worse is they’re doing it in a time of war. Do we want less secure airports — or unhappy, unpaid agents — at a moment when terrorist attacks are more likely?” [editor’s note: TSA should be abolished. The “you wouldn’t give us what we wanted, so we started a war, now you should because DANGER” con is old and tired – TLK] (03/16/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/03/16/opinion/chuck-schumers-shutdown-gambit-gets-riskier-by-the-day/
- Shameless Guesses, Not Hallucinations
Source: Astral Codex Ten
by Scott Alexander“I hate the term ‘hallucinations’ for when AIs say false things. It’s perfectly calculated to mislead the reader — to make them think AIs are crazy, or maybe just have incomprehensible failure modes. AIs say false things for the same reason you do. At least, I did. In school, I would take multiple choice tests. When I didn’t know the answer to a question, I would guess. Schoolchild urban legend said that ‘C’ was the best bet, so I would fill in bubble C. … So the interesting question isn’t why AIs hallucinate: during training, guessing correctly is rewarded, guessing incorrectly isn’t punished, so the rational strategy is to always guess (and increase your chance of being right from 0 to 0.001%). Since AIs in normal consumer use follow the strategies they learned during training, they guess there too.” (03/16/26)
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/shameless-guesses-not-hallucinations
- SolutionsWatch, 03/17/26
Source: The Corbett Report
“James talks to John C. A. Manley about the writers who inspired his own resistance fiction and the line between resistance fiction and predictive programming.” (03/17/26)
https://corbettreport.com/resistance-fiction-solutionswatch/
- Freedom Works Radio with Paul Molloy, 03/17/26
Source: Freedom Works
“Kelley Vlahos, Quincy Institute ‘The Ill-Conceived Iran Conflict.'” (03/17/26)
https://internetradiopros.com/freedomworks/?name=2026-03-17_zfw03092026.mp3
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 03/17/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Over 200 US Troops Wounded in Iran War, Relatives of Airman Killed in Iraq Criticize War, and More.” (03/17/26)
- LPA Solidarity Stream 15
Source: LP Alliance
“Hype Tech: What the World’s Getting Wrong About LLMs.” (03/16/26)